World Seventeen
World Seventeen, First Contact: World Seventeen was discovered by the Weaver Guild in 5146 AF and was classified as a Level Four World with indications of potential Portal capabilities. Due to exotic material requirements for the development of Portal Generators, further experimentation into artificial Portals was abandoned. The field was considered fringe science until the first of the Shok-Natal arrived to conduct a planetary evaluation alongside of a Guild sanctioned investigation team. By 5287 AF, the Weaver Guild decided that First Contact Protocols should be initiated between World One and World Seventeen to establish trade and the exchange of scientific beliefs. In 5341 AF, now aware of other Worlds, the World Council requests that a research team be taken to explore various planets that were discovered by other Worlds in hopes of establishing off-world colonies. After five years of deliberation between the World One Council and the Weaver Guild it was decided that until W-17 developed a means of interstellar travel independently that no such excursions should take place. Without the continued support of the Guild, and in the absence of their own development of Portal technology, the Guild felt that establishing off-world colonies without a supporting transit system would either leave the colonies to suffer or in-debt the Guild to providing long term transit Portals to ensure their survival. Shortly after the decree by the Guild, relations between W-1 and W-17 began to suffer until the Shok-Natal appeared on the scene to tip the balance in favor of W-17. The Church of the Light, the clerical arm of the Shok-Natal, brought a contingent of Monks to W-17 disguised as diplomatic ambassadors. The Church leaders, feeling that the Church of the Immaculate Spirit and the Church of Light were canonically compatible, secretly negotiated with members of the Council to provide illicit Portal transits in exchange for territorial holdings in Oceania as a permanent colony. Eager to expand outwards and explore the mineral rich planets in the solar system, several members of the World Council agreed to their demands and the decision to keep the deal secretive was reached. Within a year the Separatist Compact was signed and effectively forbade any Caste other than the Shok-Natal to have access to W-17, allowing the Church to operate unchecked and without fear of discovery by the other Castes on W-1. Separatist Compact of 5347: While the Monks were providing transits off-world to help establish mining colonies on various moons, the Church was beginning it’s pattern of expansion on W-17. Slowly at first, but with more success over the next century, the Church began to influence the elections and promotion of certain members of local governments to create a religious bloc from which to gain power. More time and money was spent to convert nearby nations to the Faith while seeding opposition religions with instigators. As the Faith grew in strength the covert instigators would help create dissent among the other religions, urging them to lash out at the Faith, and at times beginning religious conflicts between the factions. Under the tenants of the Clerical Accords the World Council was forced to act, stepping in to dismantle the offending religious sects and imprisoning their leaders. By 5420 AF, with the Church firmly in control of more than half of the World Council, rumors began to spread of the corruption and influence of the Church of the Light. In 5421, armed with hundred of documented reports and reams of banking records, the public view of the Church began to turn against the once trusted organization. Attempts to unseat the Church backed government officials began in earnest in 5425, the political battles quickly escalating into armed conflict as the Church refused to surrender the territory gained over the last century. The conflict, later known as the Ecclesial War, continued until 5529 AF when Senior Decurion Arturius Secundis (citation provided by documents released after the Church Reformation Act of 5718 AF) met with the Church Council to provide a solution to the war that continued to drain Church resources and funds. On the 100th Day of the Year 5529 AF, Louis Cannes, under direction of Secundis, released the second version of the Purity Virus into the general population. Originally designed as a bio-weapon to destroy the Cache-Motain, the Purity virus was redesigned as a planet clearing weapon, a weapon that the Castes and inhabitants of W-1 were immune to. Though it was impossible to create a virus with 100% communicability and mortality, as the disease would burn itself out far too quickly, Cannes modified the virus to destroy the rational portions of the human brain to create an army of uncontrollable homicidal maniacs. Those not directly infected with the Purity virus were contaminated through exposure to fluid or gases from the infected. The Fall of Seventeen: Day 247 in the Year 5529 AF saw the defection of a Church Monk who, sickened at the horror brought to W-17 by the Purity Virus, passed word to the Guild of what was happening. The Guild, horrified at the wholesale destruction, quickly petitioned the Council to dispatch humanitarian aid attempt to rescue any uninfected members of the population that could be found. The first of the Ahn-Nafhier strike teams arrived on Day 260 and attempted to establish Control Zones to protect the uninfected while the Weaver Guild arranged transport off-world for the survivors. By Day 281 nearly 90% of the planet was infected, the Ahn-Nafhier and newly drafted Cache-Motain forces gave up containment efforts and were engaged in a slash and burn retreat. Convoys of survivors were escorted to the evacuation sites established by the Portal Weavers, sites that were continually shifting due to the incursions of the infected. As more and more Ahn-Nafhier forces were pulled from the line to defend the Portal sites, the Council decided that the evacuation of W-17 was untenable and call for a full retreat of all forces on W-17. The last of the Ahn-Nafhier forces withdrew on Day 287, barely a month after arriving, fighting running battles across the globe as they tried to save as many survivors as possible before the last of the evacuation Portals were closed permanently. By Day 288 the final survivors were evacuated and the newly established Quarantine Protocols were set in place, the fullscale lockdown of the planet was achieved by forty Orbers above the World, each designed to shut down any Portals that were created on the surface below. Faced with the reality that illicit transit took place, the Orbers that were designed to monitor the worlds below them were now encoded with Origin Codes that were randomly generated by the Portal Guild and only issued to Lords of the Guild to ensure that no further unauthorized off-world transit could take place. World Seventeen remained quarantined and listed as a dead World until Memphis Bey visited with a small team in 5620 in an attempt to gather a sample of the original Purity Virus to help combat the virus released on World Twenty-Three. Government: As on many advanced Worlds, the World Council was an oversight agency designed to allow for easier communication and control of the various nations across W-17. Individually the member nations practiced numerous forms of self rule from Social Democracy to complete Totalitarianism. Political and economic alliances were common with similar minded nations, forming military Blocs to establish a perimeter against rival nations. The last planetary War ended in 5014 AF with the establishment of the economically focused World Council, the body leveraging monetary gains and penalties against subject governments until all were brought under the oversight of the Council. Religion: Though there were many religions present on W-17, most of the population was predominantly Gnostic and believed in a One God, though enlightenment would only take place after death. The concept of hell was unknown to many religions on W-17, the closest reference was in describing “life as a hell in which the Faithful must suffer to reach the peace and purity of the One God after death. If one led a noble life, such rewards were waiting for those in the next life, while those failing to live a noble life were destined to oblivion upon their death.” Ending the Holy Wars, the last planet wide war, the World council of W-17 decreed that while any religion would be tolerated, the teachings of hate towards another religion or its members would not be tolerated. Any religion found violating the Clerical Accords would be subject to disbanding and the heads of the order would be imprisoned and the teachings banned under punishment of jail. Even religious protestations of the scientific community were outlawed as such acts were seen as the first steps towards persecution of the non-religious by worshippers. While many believed that while the Clerical Accords were difficult to enforce fairly, it leveled the playing field among the religious and did help usher in an ordered and peaceful mediation between the various sects across the planet. Once the Accords were fully in place and enforceable, W-17 witness a surge in varying beliefs, though all were careful not to antagonize the already hostile governing body. In the absence of debates on religion or the subjugation of one belief over another, W-17 began to undergo a surge in scientific understanding as more members of the government began to throw off religious bias. Category:Worlds